Genesis 3:6-8
Romans 1:18 - 3:23
Ephesians 2:1-3, 11-12
James 1:14-15
I. Lostness is Separation from God
Genesis 3:6-8; Prohibition - Genesis 2:15-17
Four Characters - 1. Adam 2. Eve 3. God 4. Satan
Familiar ring? Does Eve's rationalizing tha tfruit is pretty, tasty, and educational seem almost contempory? Does Satan's getting Eve to forget other freedoms and focus on one prohibition seem modern? Does Adam's excuse for taking fruit forbidden seem natural? Look at the patience of God as He cries in the garden "Where are you?" - Is he like the shepard seeking one lost sheep? - Luke 15
Modern man does not live ing the Garden of Eden, but connection between what happened then and our efforts to make our world a garbage dump.
Temptation doesn't come by talking to a snake today, but many voices of temptation are calling men to disobey God.
Still Today - Man fashions aprons of fig leaves to cover sin in vain - I Corinitians 15:21-22
SIN: Definition and ingredients
1. Sin is to miss a goal or barrier.
2. Sin is rebelling against superior or unfaithfulness to an agreement.
3. Sin is disobedience.
4. Sin is failure to do good.
5. Sin is living independently of God.
6. Sin is failure to trust Christ.
7. Sin is unbelief.
8. Sin changes the status of even the nature of the person (guilty) soul becomes diseased.
Some assumptions which accompany any discussion of sin
1. The existence of responsibility - objects, animals, children - not responsible.
2. The existence of a revelation - sin is not disobeying an unknown will of God, but a known one revealed.
3. The existence of willful disobedience - will - the ability to decide.
Unbelief: The Root of Sin
God's will - single prohibition - Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil - Genesis 2:16-17
Attitudes about sin often go unchallenged
1. Sin as necessary for moral growth and maturity - "I know its wrong but think how dull life would be without it?!! - Sin kills life.
God's goal for Adam was not sin but innocence - mentioned Christ - So second Adam
2. Over tendency to blame sin on author of prohibition, God, root of sin, not God's prohibiting, but man's disbelief.
Temptation of Adam and Eve made personal and externalized by the serpent - Genesis 3:1
1. Serpent misrepresented the command of God - Genesis 2:16-17
2. Satan challenged the truth of God's statement with "You surely will not die!" Genesis 3:4
3. Satan challenged God's motives - Genesis 3:5 - Satan misrepresented God's motive - not good - she thought that she could be like God - unwillingness to be man and desire to be God is at the heart of man's fall
Bad to be confused about existence of God - worse to doubt Word of God but to feel tha tGod does not have his best interests at heart - sin reached vitals of his life.
Verse 6 - took of fruit, ate, gave to Adam - Sin appeals to physical, Sin appeals to the Aesthetic, Sin delight to eyes, Sin appeals to intellect - make one wise
Spiritual Death - The Fruit of Sin
Adam and Eve found out sin never delivers what it promises - shame and fear instead of peace, joy, and self-respect - Gone was the boldness of innoncence - sin brought separation and death - Spiritual death to relationship with God
Beginning with Genesis 3:9 - God Calls; 11-13 - God questioning; 14-15 - serpent pronounced; 16 - Eve; 17-19 - Adam; 21 - Provision; 23-24 - expulsion
Example - spiritual death to youth - sin kills rebelling youth, compromising adult - true internally - externally
Lostness: Result of Sin - Romans 1:18; 3:23 - Man is responsible to respond to God at whatever level he reveals himself.
A. Creation - Romans 1:20 (Psalms 19:1-2)
B. Conscience - Romans 2:15
C. Law - Romans 3:19 (for Jew)
D. God's revelation in Jesus Christ
Lostness: Every man's experience - Ephesians 2:1-3; 11-12
Course of this world - Ephesians 2:2
Sin is universal, world has evil influence upon us - "the prince of the power of the air" - Ephesians 2:2 > personal devil
"By nature childeren of wrath" Ephesians 2:3
Why do men sin? - man a sinner - Romans 5:15 - a course of life - an inborn disposition - depravity - weakness so great - results in sin - experience says this is true - the Bible says this is true - History confirms it.
Something wrong with man - man is not as bad as he can be. Nature is toward evil, but he has a choice - man in power and grip of sin
Problem of sin - not just acts, but our nature - new birth is necessary > new, not new rule book, but heart.
Lostness: A modern day experience
Lost - broken marriage vows, drug addiction, etc.
Luke 19:10 - Jesus came to seek and save the lost - separated from Christ, alienated strangers, having no hope, without God - that describes Modern Man
Modern man without Christ looks more like Adam than he is willing to admit:
1. Cannot get along with himself - prelude
2. Cannot get along with marriage relations
3. Races of men - cannot get along together
4. Nations cannot get along
5. Man cannot get along with nature - strip coal from surface lets wind and rain wash away mountain, leaves farm for the city, factory he works in pollutes the air he breathes, city he lives in dumps garbage into river he used to fish in
Man without God -
- Man surrounded by people, but lonely
- Has heart attack because in great hurry
- Has leisure time, but is afraid of it so he gets a second job
- Works hard to retire and resents it when the time comes
- Gets drunk to forget what life is about
- Gets high on drugs to see what might be
Source of Man's Sin - James 1:13-15
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